Postal ballot facility for people above 85 years and differently abled begins in Dindigul

Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency enables 1,257 elderly and disabled voters to cast postal votes from their homes.

A total of 1,257 people who were categorized as persons above 85 years of age and those with more than 40 per cent disability in Dindigul Lok Sabha constituency were given the option of casting their votes from their dwellings, said Returning Officer M. N. Poongodi here on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, she said that as per the Election Commission of India’s guidelines, the voters were sensitized to cast their votes without fail on April 19, the date of polling. Several other measures were also taken to ensure 100 per cent voting by the people, she said.

And one among them was to encourage even those who were immobile due to age related issues or had difficulties in reaching out to the polling stations. For these people, the ECI had arranged for them to cast their votes from the place where they lived.

In Dindigul, after identification exercise was conducted, 15,052 people were found to above 85 years of age and 10,025 among them received the forms. The officials said that 820 qualified among them had filled in the forms and 10 were rejected.

Likewise, 12,263 differently abled persons were identified in the Lok Sabha constituency and 11,424 people were given forms. The officials received 633 filled-in applications and 447 among them were accepted.

Thus, a total of 1,257 people were found to be eligible to cast their postal votes from Palani, Athur, Oddanchatram, Nilakottai, Natham and Dindigul Assembly segments. A total of 25 teams were deployed to monitor the entire procedure, which included videographing of the persons as well, the officials added.

The officials clarified that the names of the people who had taken the postal ballot option would be removed from the voter list, while those who had not given the forms had the option to reach out to the polling stations on April 19 and cast their votes in person.